Financially ailing Woodlake eyes Pecan Valley's woes

Updated 8:08 pm, Tuesday, May 29, 2012

As John Clay counts down to his next meeting with the bankruptcy judge who may well determine the future of financially reeling Woodlake Golf Club, he stares down a truth every bit as sobering as a plugged lie in the lip of a pot bunker.

Sentiment likely isn't going to get him out of this mess.

For evidence of it, the course's owner needs to look no farther than a dozen miles to his south, where storied Pecan Valley Golf Club's fairways and greens have been reduced to weed patches after the site was shuttered by Foresight Golf early this year.

Despite ongoing, impassioned efforts by advocates of the legendary South Side layout, site of the 1968 PGA Championship, it appears probable that what once was a site adored by critics and golf purists will soon be dissected into plats for housing and a whittled-down course for wounded veterans.

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“People have asked me about Pecan Valley, and I tell you, it's not going to open again,” said Clay, who after 40 years in the sport is considered one of the prominent faces of San Antonio golf. “They may have a few holes they can have, but it's not going to be the same as it's been.”

That's a stark reality that stomps on raw nerves with metal spikes. It's likely that a scattering of top players will skip next month's Greater San Antonio Men's Amateur Championship because it takes place at Republic Golf Club, a Foresight property located not far from Pecan Valley.

Will it make a difference? In the grand scheme of things, perhaps only on the dark wood placards that list city champions at the Brackenridge Golf Course clubhouse.

In golf, as in life, matters of the heart are often trumped by matters of the wallet.

That's especially true in golf these days, and such stories are playing out in headlines nationwide.

In Fort Worth, for instance, a fight continues to save the public Z Boaz Golf Course, where luminaries such as Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson honed their games.

There have been success stories, of course. Celebrated East Lake Golf Club, a turn-of-the-last-century layout, was salvaged as part of the reclamation of what had been a decaying swath of Atlanta. Today it hosts headline championships.

Clay, for his part, stubbornly believes that a similar turnaround awaits his club, despite having to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. Eight years ago, the former head of San Antonio municipal golf operations joined a few others in purchasing the facility, which opened in 1972 and hosted five straight Texas Opens.

Today, he courts potential investors, considers soliciting help from nearby residents, and studies any business model that might work to show the bankruptcy judge at a June 26 meeting that there's a viable plan in place to save Woodlake.

It's a place with a remarkable history. But Clay has been reminded of late that admiring history is not enough to secure a remarkable future.

“This place can make it. I know it,” he said. “But we've had some bad years. The debt has been snowballing bigger and bigger. We need to come up with a business plan. If not, it's going to have to go by the wayside like Pecan Valley.”